Goyal, speaking on the ambitious Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project, said that train has not seen a sigle accident in Japan.

Goyal, speaking on the ambitious Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project, said that train has not seen a sigle accident in Japan. (ANI)

Ahead of ground breaking ceremony of the bullet train project, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday exuded confidence that country’s rail network will be transformed and revolutionised after the initiative. Goyal, speaking on the ambitious Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project, said that train has not seen a sigle accident in Japan. “It has been a zero accident train in Japan and I am sure the track record will remain the same in India,” Piyush Goyal was quoted as saying by ANI. “Day after tomorrow Railways will be transformed and revolutionized,” Goyal added. The railway minister even said that coming of bullet trains to India will boost employment, adding, that in future India will be able to export it too. “PM has given directions for a holistic development of the Indian Railways,” Goyal said. “India’s transport sector is all set to change and it is indeed a matter of celebration,” he added.

Goyal’s statement came ahead of a groundbreaking ceremony for the ambitious Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project, commonly referred to as the bullet train project. The ceremony or bhoomi-pujan, will be performed on September 14 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, PTI had reported. The ceremony will be held at a ground near the Ahmedabad’s Sabarmati railway station. Modi and Abe are expected to stay in the city for three days, starting from September 13.

“Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and our PM would arrive in Gujarat on September 13 afternoon. The next morning, they would attend the groundbreaking ceremony of the high-speed rail project at the Sabarmati railway station. Both of them are expected to leave on September 15 morning,” an official was quoted as saying.

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The high-speed railway line between Ahmedabad and Mumbai is expected to cover 508 kilometers in about two hours, the operating speed for the train will be around 320 kmph. The bullet train is expected to become operational by 2023. Eighty-one per cent of the entire project cost will be in the form of a loan from Japan.